Vegandale Is Over. Team Launches New Festival.

Edited by The VEGPRENEUR Team

After 12 years as one of the most recognizable names in vegan events, Vegandale has officially announced it is retiring the brand. In its place, several members of the original team are launching a new company and festival concept called Voenix.

The announcement marks the end of an era for a festival that helped define what a large scale vegan consumer event could look and feel like across North America. It also signals a strategic evolution in how plant based culture, community, and commerce may be presented in the next chapter.

What Vegandale Built

For more than a decade, Vegandale was known for turning vegan festivals into high energy, culture forward consumer experiences. With stops in cities like New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto, the festival blended food, music, streetwear aesthetics, and unapologetic branding into a format that attracted both committed vegans and the vegan curious.

For emerging plant based brands, Vegandale was often one of the first opportunities to reach thousands of consumers in a single weekend. Many founders credit the festival with driving early trial, social media visibility, and direct to consumer traction.

The event also stood out for its distinctive brand voice. Bold, sometimes provocative, and culturally fluent, Vegandale did not position itself as a wellness expo. It positioned itself as a lifestyle movement.

Vegandale was not without its issues as pointed out by an infamous New York Times article: Panic! At the Vegan Food Festival

As the plant based category matures, the format and positioning of these events is also evolving. The retirement of the Vegandale brand and the launch of Voenix suggests a reset in how the team sees the future of large format vegan consumer gatherings.

Enter Voenix

According to the announcement and the new site at wearevoenix.com, Voenix is not being framed as a continuation of Vegandale, but as an entirely new company and “revolutionary festival concept.”

While full details are still emerging, early signals point to:

A broader positioning beyond the word “vegan” as an identity marker
A refreshed brand aesthetic and tone
An opportunity to reimagine how food, culture, and community intersect at scale

For brands, this is an important signal. The consumer appetite for experiential discovery has not disappeared. It is being rebranded, reframed, and potentially expanded.

A Pattern We Are Seeing Across the Industry

This move mirrors a broader shift happening across plant based businesses:

Brands softening explicit vegan language in favor of broader appeal
Events repositioning around culture, experience, and inclusivity rather than dietary labels
A focus on bringing in new consumers rather than preaching to the converted

Voenix appears to be designed for that next phase. If Vegandale represented the first generation of high impact vegan festivals, Voenix may represent the second generation, built for a more mature and competitive market.

The Takeaway

Vegandale’s retirement is not a loss of momentum for plant based events. It is a signal of evolution.

For brands that grew up alongside Vegandale, this is the closing of a meaningful chapter. For those watching what comes next, Voenix represents a case study in how legacy plant based platforms are adapting to a new era of consumer expectations.